| word | superfluous |
|---|---|
| definition | Beyond what is needed; extra. |
| eg_sentence | My Freshman Comp professor removes all superfluous words from our essays, and usually ends up shortening mine by about 40 percent. |
| explanation | Since the Latin fluere means “to flow” (see FLU), you can think of superfluous as describing a river with so much water that it's overflowing its banks. The word is used in all kinds of contexts. Superfluous characters in computer code may keep it from working. Most of the buttons on a remote control may strike us as superfluous, since we never use them. When a situation “speaks for itself,” any comment may be superfluous. And whenever you yourself are feeling superfluous, as in a “Two's company, three's a crowd” situation, it's probably time to leave |
| IPA | ˈsupərflˌwəs |
Tags: mwvb::unit:27, mwvb::unit:27:word, mwvb::word, mwvb::word-cloze, mwvb::word-reverse, obsidian_to_anki
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